July 26, 2015

Continuing with the theme of childhood imagination, these are the last two collage in the series.

Poppet

For the background of these two collages I used paper that I had altered. In the collage above I used a gelatin print. Below I used an altered National Geographic page.

Fortress

I found working within a theme to be challenging, as I usually just arrange scraps and pieces on my work surface until something jumps out at me. For this series it took longer to cultivate the images and I found myself spending a good chunk of time going through magazines and image files.

July 21, 2015

A few collages I did back in May that I never shared on the blog. These are from a series of five collages from another one of Randel Plowman's excellent classes. He pushed us to create in themes this time around.

Last One In

My theme for this series is childhood games and imagination. These were just pure fun to create.

July 09, 2015

It's been almost two months since I've blogged and four months since our renovation started. Towards the second half of May construction moved into our basement family room, which meant moving lots of crap stuff in and around my craft area. Then came refinishing the floors and stairs, and long story short we got kicked out of the basement area for a huge chunk of time which included access to my computer.

We're now 99% finished with this renovation. My last post in April included demo, framing, rough-ins drywall, and toothing in new hardwood for the kitchen. Then we just waited for the cabinets to arrive.

Here's the general schedule. If you're planning your own remodel, this might be a helpful timeline for estimating your project.

Our cabinets are by Shiloh. One of the things we learned is that remodeling/build companies have certain brands that they work with. This little fact hadn't occurred to me - and it's an important one. I assumed that we could have whatever we wanted from the general marketplace. So, if you're looking at remodeling, one of the important questions you need to ask is what products/companies they use, like cabinetry, where you're obligated to use that particular brand.

My requirements for cabinets were 1) flat paneled with absolutely NO trim whatsoever and 2) contemporary look. We choose the Arizona Cypress finish (thermal fused laminate) for the lower cabinets and pantry and Polar White (painted) for the uppers. With this company, you can't get the frameless door (metro style) in a solid wood. Our doors are all mdf and I was a bit concerned with how it would look, until they were installed.

This is right after install. We used a mix of pull out drawers, pull out shelves, and open shelves. The cabinets along the windows are all pull out drawers to hold pots, pans, and baking supplies. Dishes and glassware are going into the white uppers, along with as much of my good china as will fit. We're using the backside of the island to hold small appliances and food right now, which may change as I finish unpacking the POD. Finally, next to the fridge is a large pantry cabinet with slide-out shelves.

It was interesting to watch everything put together, and how meticulously everything was leveled and centered. On the ends of the island they glue a laminate sheet over both cabinets so that it looks like one piece. Then, along the bottom of all the cabinets a matching kickplate is installed.

After the cabinets are installed the countertop guys can come in and measure. The measuring process was surprisingly high-tech. And, apparently the front of part of our house is not totally square. In a week or so they were back to install our countertops.

We chose quartz countertops for our kitchen. We got a lot of pressure from the design firm to go with granite -- and a lower grade of granite, but I dug in my heels for quartz. This is Organic White by Caesarstone. Quartz has the strength of granite, but it's non-porous and never needs sealing. Unlike granite, which is a slab of stone, quartz is 90ish% crushed stone with resin. It's stain-resistant, too. And absolutely beautiful.

I just love these. My kids keep saying, "Mom, back away from the cabinets and stop stroking the counters!"

Seriously, though, I knew we were going to have interest in our marble backsplash so I wanted to keep the countertops close to a solid white. The organic white is not solid, but it's a lovely off-white that matches well with both the polar white cabinets and our marble.

I wanted tab pulls for the lower cabinets. They are sleek and contemporary. We have two different kinds: a 3" tab for swing-out doors and a heavier 8" tab for the wider pull-out drawers and trash. These 8" tabs screw into the backside of the door, instead of the top, because you need sturdier hardward for drawers that either get used all the time or contain heavy items. The upper and pantry cabinets have bar pulls.

And here's the marble before it was grouted. We used Lansdale Carrara Amalfi from the Tile Shop. It is so much prettier in person than on their website. The Tile Shop describes it as "Elegant white marble with dark gray and tan veining." It is a creamy marble, with tan to almost rust-colored veins. It really complements the wood of the cabinets and the light fixtures we have in the rooms.

May 14, 2015

This group of four collages is themed around animals. Rather fitting, as we've been watching a fox family that made a den under our garage. Every day we hope to catch some of the six kits playing in the yard.

May 02, 2015

We wrapped up our four week pastel class this Wednesday, and I was hoping to finish this painting. I think it's about finished, but I'll set it aside for May and bring it back to class in June to see if there's anything I want to change or add.

You can see how it evolved from the sketch. One of favorite iPhone apps is Hueless. It's the best app for checking your values and I'll use it as I work on my paintings, checking it against my reference photo.

This was one a shot using Hueless taken about half-way through the class as I was working on the lower foreground area. It helps me see where I need to either lighten or darken the pastel. You can use value viewers, like these, of which I have several, but my phone is often easier to grab. And the hueless app doesn't have the same limitations as the hand-held viewers with red pastels.

I've also been slowly working on getting this watercolor still life completed. I've posted some in-progress shots on Instagram. I was really pleased with how the pumpkins were coming along and I was quite nervous about adding a background.

Sometimes you have to be brave and repeat after yourself, "it's only paper.... it's only paper...."

April 23, 2015

Here's a few collages I put together this past week, for Randel Plowman's latest course. I'm a bit behind others this time around, as the renovation work has gotten in the way of just about everything. But I'm told that our new kitchen cabinets will be delivered on Monday, ahead of schedule, so I can't really complain.

April 21, 2015

Since the last time I posted a finished pastel painting (back in February) I've completed two more and just started on a third. After completing the monochromatic pastel on Uart paper (below), I grabbed a piece of gatorfoam that had a prepared surface. It was much smaller than the UArt, around 8x10, and I thought I'd try the same subject again.

Here's my monochromatic painting:

And now the second, smaller one. I started with a black, textured surface and while I used many of the same colors, I didn't restrict myself to a monochromatic scheme. I happily added a variety of other colors.

Working on a prepared surface is fun and forces you to stay loose and not get lost in details. I just started a new painting this past week on a mostly blue surface. If you follow me on Instagram you saw my sketch and photo. I'm hoping the bright blue background will help the yellows and oranges really pop.

After class on Wednesday, I'd made a good start. You can see where I used a white pastel pencil to lightly sketch in my shapes.

And who knows. Maybe when I've finished with this one I'll turn around and do it again, this time on UArt.

April 20, 2015

It's been quiet on the blog, due to this renovation. The dust & noise have made it near impossible for me to get anything done. So, I'm making up for it with an extra-long post on our progress.

While week one was mainly demo, week two had workers all over the house - upstairs and downstairs - doing plumbing, electrical, and HVAC. The HVAC guys were here for almost a week, replacing the ductwork in literally half the house.

By the end of week two, we were ready for inspection for all the rough-ins and waiting on the new kitchen windows to show up. The old door to the garage was removed and covered with plywood, while the new opening was framed in, but not cut out.

Week three has less noise, but much more dust. We passed inspection, new insulation went in the walls and the hardwood floor was put in (unfinished for now). The old windows came out so they could complete the framing & electrical. Then came the drywall. And copious quantities of dust.

You can see in the photo below where they added the new hardwood. They removed sections of the old floor - staggered - and replaced it with new wood. Once they sand and refinish the entire floor you won't be able to tell the two sections apart.

I think the worst part of the renovation so far has been the drywall install. I went from admiring the new hardwood to freaking out at all the drywall mud splashed all over my new floor. Yes, I know that they're unfinished and will be sanded down, but really? It looked like they had a mud-filled water balloon fight on my floor. The first night I swiffer mopped what was left of our old floor, mainly so we had a clean area to walk around without spreading dust. However, when they were finally finished with the sanding I wet mopped the entire floor, determined to get all that drywall mud cleaned up.

Which I did.

The thick black wires are for the cooktop and oven, both which will be hardwired. The yellow wire will be outlets all across the back, including outlets for the exhaust fan and microwave/convection oven combo.

From the outside, my husband joked that we were now going for the "crack house chic" look as we had large pieces of plywood covering about half of the front. But week four fixed all that. The new windows went in and the ugly, old aluminum siding was removed. We even got rid of the dental molding and door trim that I've hated for years. Back in the '60s when our house was built they didn't have Tyvek, or apparently any other kind of weatherproofing, as you can see.

We also found a lovely 12" x 16" hole cut in the front to the right of the windows. Our project manager figured it out for us - the builders were lazy and to install the HVAC ductwork that ran along that side of the house they cut a hole in the exterior and shoved it in. Didn't bother to repair the hole, though, they just covered it up only with the siding. We should be thankful that it wasn't discovered by animals over the years.

Now that's a beautiful sight -- Tyvek and new windows! I can't wait until the rest of the siding comes off, but this is a great start. This house will finally be well sealed and insulated. Besides upgrading the insulation in the walls, we'll be adding blown-in insulation in the attic to bring our measly 10-13 r-value to a 38. New windows will also help, including having our contractor seal and insulate around the windows, something we found wasn't done when it was built. Finally, Tyvek house wrap all around, which will provide waterproofing and seal against drafts under the siding.

It was really interesting to watch the windows going in. First came the Tyvek over the plywood exterior. Next they added Tyvek's flex wrap along the bottom sill. Then the actual windows were put in place and nailed before more flex wrap was added along the sides and bottom.

We were originally going to have Pella install the rest of the windows, however, we're rethinking that decision. If we have the contracts install new construction windows, instead of replacement windows, we can guarantee that the waterproofing will get done on every window and any existing water damage will be fixed - or removed. And the windows and siding would get done together.

Here's how the windows look from the inside. We opted for casement windows instead of double-hung windows. Since they are relatively short, I didn't want a line across the middle making them look even smaller, as a good chunk of the neighborhood still has the long (to the floor) windows.

You can also see on the left-hand side of the photo that the new door to the garage was installed. I didn't think I'd be so excited to have a quick way through to the garage. We had considered eliminating the door entirely, as the original plans were to have a mudroom off the back with an entrance to the house -- something that won't happen for at least two - three years. But having no door for two weeks really convinced me that we made the right choice.

This week we're hoping to have the drywall primed, which means the plastic barriers can come down and we can move some of our stuff back into the living room/dining room. And things will be more normal for a bit, anyways. After that it's just waiting until the cabinets show up.

April 01, 2015

Last Monday we started a huge renovation. Which meant we spent the week before frantically packing, loading boxes into the POD and freaking out about how much crap stuff we have.

We decided to tackle the kitchen, stairs and HVAC work first. All the interior kitchen/living room/dining room walls are gone and we're going open concept. Mostly, as we'll still have a floor to ceiling space that will hold the fridge and pantry cabinets.

This is what we're starting with -

And this is where we're going, for the kitchen anyway. We're moving the kitchen to the front and encompassing the old "eat in" area, enlarging the coat closet, and shifting the door to the garage. In addition, we're adding can lights all around, new tile in the entry and extending the hardwood floors throughout the kitchen. The island will have cabinets on both sides, as well.

We were up bright and early Monday morning, ready for the crew to show up. By the end of the second day the old kitchen was totally gone all the walls were down. We got a lovely look at the original flooring in the kitchen. We still can't decide which is worse.

My daughter was very upset that she wasn't there to help demo the kitchen, so the guys saved some drywall for her to hit with a hammer this week. She was thrilled.

By Friday afternoon the kitchen was down to the subfloor, the framing and plumbing rough-ins were done, and the HVAC guys were well underway. It was quite noisy and dusty.

Honestly, so far it's not as bad as we expected. We have a large area of the living room taped off with heavy plastic holding our dining room table, fridge and a pantry cabinet. The plastic sheeting to the bedrooms & downstairs works pretty well, as long as it stays up and zipped. It is a lot louder that I imagined and I've found I haven't been able to get a lot done during the day with all the noise.

We put off working on the basement office space, bathroom & laundry for now, which in hindsight was probably the right choice. So far we're coping with losing the kitchen, but with all the laundry we do on a weekly basis I'd go batty with both gone.

You just have to realize you will have lots of dust and that even though the crew sweeps up, it won't be as thorough as you'd like. I usually resweep after they leave in the evening and use a swiffer wet mop on the hardwoods just to help keep the dust from spreading throughout the house.

March 29, 2015

The kids and I went to Wizard World Raleigh two weeks ago, driving down late Saturday morning after Thomas's District Band evaluation. Right after we got back I had to dive into moving half the house into the POD to get ready for our renovations, which started last Monday. Along with tons of dust - hence the lack of posting on this blog.

Anyhoo - on to the interesting stuff...

We got to the convention about 3:30 - too late to catch any of the Saturday panels but just in time to see David Tennant escorted to the photo area. He smiled and waved to us. It made our day, to say the least...

So, I dragged them to back of the convention hall to get a couple of autographs. We barely got William Shatner's before he left, and then I had to convince Rachel to stay in line with me for Ian Sommerhalder. He was super cool. Really, some day when she's older she's going to appreciate this. But I'm keeping the autograph.

We had a photo op with Joel Hodgson, from MST3K. He was really nice and we tried to get his autograph several times but kept missing him. We did take a picture with this guy -

That was his Sunday sign. The reverse says "free shrugs."

We wandered around the hall and saw this dinosaur. My first thought was somebody really spent way too much time on a costume, but I later found out it was from a company. It took four people total to control this dinosaur.

And we ran into a Vashta Nerada....

Before the convention closed for the day we joined the crowd watching David Tennant signing autographs. We may have squealed a bit....

However, that was nothing compared to Sunday. We showed up about 1:15 minutes early for David's morning panel and joined the already substantial line. It did get us seats in the 7th row, right on the aisle. And the panel didn't disappoint.

There was even a K-9.

You can find several YouTube videos for this panel - mad Cow Boy and David's recording of a video message to Margaret were some of the highlights. I took tons of photos, since it's not always easy to see what you got -- or how in focus it is (as I learned from last year's AwesomeCon panel with Billie Piper).

They say never meet your heros, but David did not disappoint. In fact, he actually rose in our esteem, if that's even possible. I just can't say enough nice things about him. Not only was he personable and friendly, but he genuinely had a smile and was interested in everyone -- throughout the panel, several hours of photographs and an even longer time for autographs - pretty much the entire day.

As I mentioned in my last post, we gave him some Girl Scout cookies.

The day after we got home they announced both David and Billie would be at Wizard World Philadelphia in May. It took less than a minute to convince my husband, who'd missed out not only on this trip, but meeting Billie last spring at AwesomeCon. We're totally going. Possibly armed with more cookies.

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Please note that all content - that includes photos & art - unless otherwise credited is copyrighted by Deborah Mahnken and is for personal inspiration only and may not be copied for publication.